Abstract

This paper tests a short form of the Problem Solving Inventory (PSI) in an Indigenous Australian population. Problem solving is universal as all people regardless of culture solve problems every day. Superior problem solving skills and confidence has also been associated with superior general and mental health, across all cultures. Nevertheless most of the problem-solving research has historically neglected the context of culture in the development and validation of instruments. Over the last decade the lack of cross cultural validity of problem solving measures has been recognised and there has been acall to improve the cross-cultural validity of such instruments. The PSI has demonstrated structural validity among a number of culturally diverse samples; however it has not been validated in Australia. There also has been a tendency towards the development of short-form instruments for research and clinical practice. Short form instruments reduce assessment time when evaluating interventions or construct and reduce the imposition on the respondent. This is only possible if robust and valid short-forms of constructs are developed. This project combined the principals of cultural validity and development ofshort-form instruments when validating a 12-item short form of the Problem Solving Inventory an Indigenous Australian population. The PSI was administered to 103 Indigenous employees in a government organisation, along with measures of mental health and employee engagement. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to test the validity of both the full scale and a pre-determined short-form. While there were some items that did not add to the structural validity, overall the PSI-12 demonstrated adequate structural validity within this population. The PSI-12 may serve to be a useful instrument for future research within the Indigenous Australian population.